Douglas Witmer

Thursday, October 30, 2008

personal baseball history : the phils win it all!

It's a GREAT day to be a Phils fan! Here's Salena waving a rally towel from the final game at the old Veteran's Stadium. After the victory, Salena and I headed down to the corner of our block where everybody was out banging on kettles, shooting off fireworks, cheering, high-five-ing, and banging on the sides of passing cars.

Labels: baseball, children, Phillies, salena

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

more personal baseball history

Over the holiday weekend I finally found these photos. Here are the 1983 Warwick Phillies from Lititz, Pennsylvania. As you can see we had extremely realistic Philadelphia Phillies powder blue road uniforms (save for a few details). I wish I had a photo of the back of these uniforms. The nameplates all said "Warwick."

The Warwick Phillies were the "travelling team" for the 11-12 year-old age level which was called Midget-Midget. The travelling team was chosen by try-outs, versus just signing up and being able to play on one of the in-town teams. We travelled all over Lancaster County to play other teams, and also competed in several tournaments each season, the main one being the New Era tournament, which was played in Mount Joy at Kunkle Field, a terrific little league ball field with sunken dugouts, lights, a warning track, advertisements on the outfield fence, you name it.

The team is pictured here, not on our home field behind the Wilbur chocolate factory, but on a non-descript field outside of town, where we often practiced, called the "Clair Brothers" field. You can see the Clair Brothers patches on our sleeves. Clair Brothers was an audio equipment firm that did big concert events and I think that's their building in the background of the team photo.

The day these uniforms were handed out was kind of a dream. It happened after practice at the Clair Brothers field. I can't remember if uniforms were handed out in turn by name or if we all kind of lunged for them. I remember it as a mix of both. There was tension in the air because of competition over who would wear certain numbers: 20 (Mike Schmidt), 14 (Pete Rose), 10 (Larry Bowa), 34 (Gary Matthews), and, of course, 32 (Steve Carlton, my hero). I watched anxiously as several boys tried on number 32. In the end, it only fit the smallest boy on the team.

That boy was me.

Labels: baseball, my favorite things, Phillies

Monday, October 01, 2007

sktchbk : 30 sept 2007

...call me crazy...

Labels: baseball, Phillies, sketchbooks

Sunday, September 30, 2007

where were you when the Phils took the division?

We were at home, watching the Phils win on TV! But I just have to republish this terrific photo from earlier this year.

Labels: baseball, children, Phillies

Friday, September 28, 2007

the team to beat

In the National League East, Phillies' shortstop Jimmy Rollins' predictions are becoming prophetic. He said the Phillies would be the team to beat! He didn't predict that he would also deserve to be the league MVP. At the time of this writing the Phils have just finished off the Nationals with an impressive 6-0 win, while the Mets can't seem to catch the Marlins, down 7-4 in the 7th. This would give the Phillies sole possesssion of first place with only two games left to play.

In the parking lot behind our house, it's "old Phillies" against "new Phillies" nightly. New Phillies remain undefeated this season. Old No. 32 just can't seem to get anybody out, while new No. 6 tacks on hit after hit after home run.

Labels: baseball, children, juan, Phillies, salena

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

file under : personal baseball history

Last night I celebrated my birthday two days early, taking my 8-month-old son Ruben to the ballpark. The Phillies opened an important 4-game series with the New York Mets...this could decide the fate of the season for them. The weather was perfect, and I realized if I was going to be able to catch any of the games the only night that would work would be last night. So we headed down to the ball park early (as you can see in this phone camera picture the Mets are still taking batting practice), got a nice seat (easy since I only needed one), and had time to get Ruben a Phils cap and a nice big chunk of soft pretzel before the game started. I wore my 1980s maroon wool cap. Typically this season I've been wearing my Phils road jersey with current red cap (like Ruben's). I wanted to try something different so as not to jinx the game.

We sat on the outfield porch, just above left field. It's a good vantage point, particularly to be able to see the outfielders work. Any New York/Philadelphia game brings out intense rivalry. And the Phillies are still relatively close in second place behind the Mets. The atmosphere in the ballpark was playoff-like, and heavily populated by Mets fans, who were all around us.

Ruben and I took our seat. A few minutes later a suburban-looking white guy with two sons arrived...all in Mets colors. With them were two other guys. The guy who sat beside us was well-built, had glowing exotic black skin, expensive Lacoste sunglasses, and a vibrant green mesh tank top that you could basically see through. He was clearly with the suburban Mets fans, but I couldn't figure out how someone like him got with folks like them. He sat down and completely filled to overflowing the seat beside us. Ruben was transfixed by this guy and couldn't stop trying to touch his skin and shirt. After a few of my apologies, he replied in a friendly way: "I guess he's never seen a Jamaican before." I said that that was probably true, since he was experiencing a lot of things for the first time. That's when I realized the bright green mesh tank top coordinated with some other black and yellow accessories. Our new Jamaican friend was wearing his national colors. Soon I also realized that this was the Jamaican's first ballgame..Throughout the game we exchanged similarities between baseball and cricket.

The Phils got off to a good start, with their rookie pitcher J.D. Durbin holding down the Mets for 4 scoreless innings, while the Phillies batters mounted a small lead. There was extra excitement in the air as it was the return of the Phillies star second baseman Chase Utley, who had missed the previous four weeks with a broken hand. Utley eventually hit a double and a home run, and had several good defensive plays. Ruben loved it--going 5 2/3 strong innings before becoming inconsolably annoyed with the Mets fans all around us. All the overstimulation had finally gotten the best of him. We left the game with the Phils ahead 3-2, and listened to the game driving home. The Phils eventually built on their lead and crushed the Mets 9-2, sealing the deal with pinch hit 2-run homer by the Japanese infielder Tadahito Iguchi.

[I'm listening to tonight's game as I write this post, and Phillies slugger Ryan Howard has just won the game in the 10th inning with a two run home run, his 35th this season...GO PHILS!]

Labels: baseball, children, Phillies

Monday, June 25, 2007

you think i forgot about the phils?

After a dismal start in April, my Philadelphia Phillies now find themselves in second place, just three games behind the New York Mets in the National League east. Whether they can do better remains to be seen. They have been a frustratingly dramatic and anticlimactic bunch as usual. Four key pitchers are currently on the disabled list. Slugger Ryan Howard is only now starting to perform consistently.

Fortunately, all of this is lost on the two little superfans in the picture. That's the spirit...I'll hang with them.

(Incidentally, Juan now has a least favorite team, the ones who wear the black hats with the logo he describes as "an N mixed with a Y.")

Labels: children, juan, Phillies